NGOs and Academia

The Islamic State (IS) is attracting Central Asians to Syria and fostering new links among radicals within the region. Unless the five Central Asian governments develop a credible, coordinated counter-action plan, including improved security measures but also social, political and economic reforms, growing radicalism will eventually pose a serious threat to their stability.

"We, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry,­­ State Secretary for European Affairs of France Harlem Desir – remain strongly committed to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) takes pride in its support of the AmericasBarometer. While the surveys’ primary goal is to give citizens a voice on a broad range of important issues, they also help guide USAID programming and inform policymakers throughout the Latin America and Caribbean region.

The countries of Central America — especially “the Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras — are among the most criminally violent nations in the world. As part of the U.S. Government’s (USG) Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has designed and implemented a set of programs to improve citizen security in Central America by strengthening community capacity to combat crime and by creating educational and employment opportunities for at-risk youth.1 USAID’s crime prevention work has been implemented through its field Missions in five countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

NATO fully supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognised borders. Therefore, we do not recognise the so-called treaty on alliance and strategic partnership signed between the Georgian region of Abkhazia and Russia on 24 November.

• A failure to institute reforms has led Bahrain’s main opposition groups to boycott
upcoming elections, undercutting the legitimacy of a parliament that, in any case, has
little power.
• The Bahraini government has unleashed another crackdown on activists, shutting down
the space for opposition in the lead up to the election.
• The ongoing repression of peaceful opposition increases the potential for violent groups
to exploit widespread disillusionment and take the lead in opposing the government.
• The government’s use of sectarian rhetoric to discredit the Shia opposition has also
created fertile ground for the growth of Sunni extremism.
• The U.S. should speak out against the imprisonment of peaceful activists, which adds
to long-term security risks, and should be flagged in the important bilateral dialogue by
defense officials as well as by diplomats.

Following yet another brutal murder of an American citizen on Sunday by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also known as ISIL or IS), the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) believes the following fact sheet will be useful for policymakers, lawmakers, and the general public to understand the nature of the crisis and the ongoing threat that ISIS poses to regional stability and U.S. interests.

This Q&A explains the law’s complicated requirements, which mirror the labyrinthine nature of the FMF program itself. The complexity also reflects the fact that the law represents a compromise among the demands of competing stakeholders in the administration and Congress. These include those who do not want the military aid relationship to be linked to Egypt’s internal political situation, on the one hand, and democracy promoters who want to condition this aid on democratic progress in Egypt, on the other. The article describes what aid has been released, what has not moved forward—mostly, orders for some new defense items—and possible next steps by Congress. (A previous article discussed the Obama administration’s suspension, announced in October 2013, the delivery of four big-ticket weapons systems—Apache attack helicopters, F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams battle tank kits, and Harpoon missiles—pending “credible progress” toward democracy in Egypt. The suspension was an executive branch decision, and as such is separate from the requirements of the 2014 law.)

At Andrews Joint Base on March 14, 2014 President Barack Obama told visiting uniformed defense chiefs that a key aspect of destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, also known as ISIL and the Islamic State) would be the promotion of moderate, legitimate governance inside Syria; governance that would ultimately be extended to all Syrians. On November 7, 2014 the White House published its strategy for "degrading and ultimately defeating ISIL:" nine lines of effort to that end. Which of the nine addressed the all-important element of moderate, legitimate governance in Syria? None. What is going on here?

In 2012 and 2013, the Panamá de Arauca region faced kidnappings, extortion, and attacks on vehicles and employees in the public and private sectors. The criminal alliances worked to turn this area into a strategic corridor in their plan to weaken the Colombian government.